Apparatus for napping textile fabrics



Dec. 17, 1963 K. A. MULLERS 3,114,189

APPARATUS FOR NAPPING TEXTILE FABRICS Filed April 17, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 W WWW Dec. 17, 1963 K. A. MULLERS 3,114,139

APPARATUS FOR NAPPING TEXTILE FABRICS Filed April 17, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,114,189 APPARATUS FOR NAPPIN G TEXTILE FABRICS Karl August Miillers, Grossheide 55, Monchen-Gladhach, Germany Filed Apr. 17, 1961, Ser. No. 103,588 1 Claim. (Cl. 26-33) The present invention relates to an apparatus for the treatment of woven textile goods, particularly for the napping of the weft of such textile goods.

It is known that normal napping machines having pile rollers and counter-pile roHers can be disposed in a tandem-arrangement, namely either in series or parallel to each other, in order to bring about a continuous working operation by means of two or a plurality of such machines. The advantage of this method resides in the fact that the number of operators required for the machines can be reduced. This method of napping the goods can be applied only, however, in such a situation, wherein the character of the textile goods permits an operation according to which the goods do not require a reversal thereof, i.e. do not need to run in the opposite direction.

By applying this method of operation the weft of the material running over the napping machine is always raised in the same running direction and from the same side. The problem of the napping of both sides of the weft is not solved by any means. If, however, a napping of the weft thread on both sides is to be obtained with this method of operation, it is necessary, at first, to separate the seams which connect the goods, and to run the goods in the other direction, and renew again the connecting seams, which is time-consuming and complicated.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for treatment of woven textile goods, particularly for the napping of the weft of the goods, which renders superfluous the known complicated method of operation and which eliminates the latter.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for treatment of woven textile goods, par ticularly for the napping of the weft of the goods, by napping the weft of the goods in a continuous working run at first in the direction of the feed of the goods and thereafter in the opposite direction, the textile goods being fed with a, preferably, constant velocity.

By applying this new apparatus for napping the Weft of the goods, it is no longer necessar that the goods to be treated are napped at first in one working operation in one direction and then in a further working operation by an opposite feed of the goods. Rather the entire working process is performed, in accordance with the present method, in one continuous, uninterrupted working operation.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the treatment of woven textile goods, particularly for the napping of the weft of the goods, which comprises a plurality, at least two napping machines which are combined to a single machine unit, which machines each have pile rollers and counter-pile rollers disposed in a rotating cylinder, whereby the machines of such single machine unit have, preferably, diilerent numbers of revolutions of the rotating cylinder in the respective machines, and whereby furthermore, the pile rollers and counter-pile rollers of one machine are disposed oppositely to those of the following machine.

It has been found as particularly advantageous, to rotate the cylinder, as well as the pile rollers and the counter-pile rollers thereof of any one of the machines in opposite directions to those of the previous machine, and to retain the relative peripheral speed of the pile rollers and of the counter-pile rollers of all machines of "ice a machine unit, preferably, unchanged in relation to the speed of the goods.

By the combination, in accordance with the present invention, of a plurality of napping machines to a dependable machine unit, it is possible, to nap the goods to an extent not achieved before, reliably and safely, in particular the weft of the goods equally in both directions on each side, without necessity of separating first the seams of the goods. Due to the particular characteristics of the following machine of the unit, namely due to the opposite direction of rotation of the cylinder on the one hand, and due to the likewise opposite direction of rotation of the pile rollers and of the counter-pile rollers thereof in relation to the direction of rotation of the elements of the previous machine of the unit, in combination with the alternate arrangement of the pile rollers and the counter-pile rollers jointly with theirvclothing on each machine, the weft thread is completely equally napped in both directions on each side of the goods.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connec tion with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevation of an apparatus designed in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of two napping machines each having pile rollers and counter-pile rollers, one machine constituting a normal raising machine, the other napping machine being equipped with the features of the present invention, and indicating a slight modification over the device disclosed in FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, and at first in particular to FIG. 2, wherein a machine unit is shown, including the machine A disclosing a normal napping machine and the machine B disclosing a napping machine designed in accordance with the present invention. Each of the machines A and B of the machine unit has, in conven tional manner, a cylinder 10 and 11, respectively, with each of the cylinders 10 and 11 carrying a plurality of pile rollers and counter-pile rollers.

The woven textile goods 16 are fed over pulling rollers 17 and at first fed into the machine A, to pass then through a storage box 18 and to be fed from there to the machine B. The storage box 18 serves the purpose that in case one machine must be stopped for a short time period for some reason, the other machine can continue its operation and can be fed from the material 19 stored in the storage box 18. Furthermore, the stored material 19 balances out any variations in the speed of the run of the goods through the machine unit.

From the second machine B the goods 16 return over the guide 20 towards the front of the machine unit. The start of the run of the goods 16 can be sewn together with its end, so that an uninterrupted run of the goods 16 is possible through both machines'A and B. The guide 20 is equipped with a turning device 21 for the goods of any known construction. If this turning device 21 is used, the other side of the goods 16 is in engagement with the napping cylinders 10 and 11 during the second run of the goods through both machines A and B. During the following run the first side is again napped, so that during each run another side of the goods 16 is in engagement with the napping drums Ill and 11. For a two-sided napping of the goods 16, one avails himself of this method.

If, however, the goods 16 are mapped on one side only, the goods 16 run from the second machine B without using the turning device 21. The advantage of this arrangement in accordance with the present invention, compared with the known raising methods, resides in the fact that the goods 16 can run uninterruptedly through both of these machines A and B without causing any stoppage.

Until now, for instance for napping of covers, in which case each side of the goods had to go through ten napping passages, the goods had to be turned around ten times and ten times reversed again. In this case it was also required to open the seams twenty times and to close them again. All this is eliminated in the arrangement according to the present invention.

The inventive structure of this machine unit resides in the fact that, on the one hand, the cylinder 11 of the machine B is driven, compared with the cylinder 19 of the machine A, in an opposite direction of rotation and with a reduced number of revolutions, and that, on the other hand, the pile rollers and counter-pile rollers 14 and 15 of the machine B are driven likewise in opposite direction of rotation in relation to the pile rollers and counter-pile rollers 12 and 13 of the machine A, and are thus alternated, whereby the peripheral speed thereof, measured in relation to the speed of the goods 16 suitably is maintained unchanged as discussed hereinabove. In this manner the weft of the goods is equally raised from both sides. Motors (unidentified in the drawings) drive the cylinders and related rollers through suitable transmission arrangements.

The described method, as well as the described apparatus, is merely one embodiment of the present invention and not limited to the example shown in the drawings, rather other embodiments and applications are possible within the scope of the present invention, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claim.

I claim:

An apparatus for napping the weft of woven textile goods comprising:

at least two napping machines,

each of said napping machines including a rotating cyl inder,

driven pile rollers and counter-pile rollers being mounted alternately about the peripheral surface of each of said cylinders,

said napping machines being combined to a single machine unit,

means for rotating said cylinders in opposite directions relative to each other and at dilferent numbers of revolutions,

means for rotating said pile rollers and said counterpile rollers of one of said napping machines in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of said pile rollers and said counter-pile rollers of the other of said napping machines, and

the operating direction of the clothing of said pile rollers and of said counter-pile rollers of one of said napping machines being opposite to that of the clothing of said pile rollers and of said counter-pile rollers of the other of said napping machines.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,100,557 Greene June 16, 1914 2,739,366 Dourdeville Mar. 27, 1956' 2,923,046 Scholaert Feb. 2, 1960 2,989,795 Pilkington et al June 27, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 116,706 Germany Jan. 10, 1901 385,719 Germany Dec. 1, 1923 3,880 Great Britain of 1875 

